2017 Seasonal Raptor Closure at Index through July 15: routes from the waterfall to the Golden Arch on the Upper Town Wall are closed for the peregrine falcon nesting season. This includes the following routes: Waterway, Technicians of the Sacred, and lower pitches of Good Girls Like Bad Boys and Sisu.

Each year, Washington Climbers Coalition partners with WA State Parks and WA DFW to monitor the Index Town Walls for nesting raptors. When hiking or climbing outside this closure buffer, avoid disturbance, keep noise to a minimum, and use your best judgment to gauge and mitigate your impact.

2017 Seasonal Raptor Closure at Index through July 15: routes from the waterfall to the Golden Arch on the Upper Town Wall are closed for the peregrine falcon nesting season. Each year, Washington Climbers Coalition partners with WA State Parks and WA DFW to monitor the Index Town Walls for nesting raptors. When hiking or climbing outside this closure buffer, avoid disturbance, keep noise to a minimum, and use your best judgment to gauge and mitigate your impact.

This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund,
and Mountain Project.You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates.

Description

This is the area left and underneath Davis Holland, comprising a half dozen or so difficult and excellent face climbs. It's relatively low-angle by sport climbing standards and doesn't see much traffic. Routes that haven't been done in awhile (AKA, all of them) probably need a bit of brushing. Calling Wolfgang was pretty clean oh, around 4 or 5 years ago when I did it. Heart's Desire might see more traffic as it's right in the rappel line from the ledge below Lovin' Arms and sees some toprope action here and there. Other routes to the left are mired in the grunge and some of the rappel setups are in dire shape. I was able to rip an old piece of lead rope used as rap tat on one anchor in half with my hands a few years back.

The other important consideration on this wall is that some of the routes likely still have aluminum Kong-Bonatti hangers. On Calling Wolfgang, a friend of mine nearly died when bodyweight alone broke one of these corroded hangers. The next hanger ripped as well but the last one between him and a 60 foot ground fall held. Any of these should be viewed as dangerous because from the front, they can appear perfectly sound. However, the aluminum tends to corrode in a planar fashion and simply wafers apart when loaded.

Getting There

Approach as for the main upper wall. Turn left at the wall. The first route is just past Davis Holland and is called Child's Play.

For some reason, I hate to give tons of stars to every single route at Index, but I really have little choice sometimes. This is another gem with a storied recent history (see my comment below). A somewhat scruffy start with some natural gear leads to a steep, aesthetic face. Sustained, slightly runout 5.11 leads past three bolts and a gear placement or two to a stance. The difficulties increase from here until a mind-melting Index friction crux is encountered. The Cramer guide notes that temper...[more]Browse More Classics in Washington